Uta-Refson, a pale faced contender (possibly of Scandinavian/Transylvanian parentage), steps up for the competition and using amp, two gambled javelins and 6 points in dim vision goes for a quiet slow stroll across the park to the outer cloister waypoint.
Full clear all at a comfortable p5, finding a nef from the countess, a felloak club, two dozen gems and a nice +1 dex 7% LR level 10 sc.
Deeds at the very beginning of the River of Flame (my worst performance in a tournament to date :unimpressed: ). I had taken a break at the City of the Damned Waypoint and apparently wasn’t thinking too hard about playing at the point I resumed.
Frost-Fang got stunned by a Blunderbore and then surrounded by other Bluderbores and Maggots. At the start, Frost-Fang only needed to kill one Blunderbore to escape the expanding mob but he kept getting stunned and the mob kept expanding. The healing potions, then rejuvenation potions disappeared one by one, and then the tp spawned out of reach. Goodbye cruel world!
@Dark Matter. Damn bro . Hate to hear that you didn't enjoy playing your barb. So early into his journey as well!
@Hans. LOL. R.I.P Frost-Fang . I know too well how it feels to lose a character stupidly, so don't feel down. Will you revenge Frost-Fang? If not, Dorian shall do his best .
Dorian has began his quest into the deserts of Act 2. He just retrieved the Staff of the Kings and is resting his heels before we continue on with our journey. Progress has been smooth so far, without much trouble. I shall post a more in-deepth update at the conclusion of Act 2. I am still very scared of facing Duriel!!
Auriel's adventure continues on. Clearing Act I, while suffered from pinch nerve in left shoulder region. Surprised I manage to focus as long as I did. Act II will have to wait until pain drops so I got feelings in hand again.
Dang it Morathi! You've sucked me in. I'm going to play an amazon. Hopefully I can get past Duriel, as I'd like to try a Bowazon and there's no good spot to kite in there.
It's been months since I even loaded the ole game up.
Let me just state for the record that this is INSANITY!!:dizzy: Anyone who finishes normal is OK in my book.:thumbup: I'll have a progress report for TheLoner later.
Act 2 was just crazy hard for Running_Scared!
As I mentioned last time, picking two lvl 30 main skills may not have been wise. I never thought my merc really helped out as much as he did! I miss him alot more right now than I do a shield!
However, I never really felt that unsafe, It was just tedious. Finally found my first unique, a 19% nagel, bad role but better than my mf ring I had on. found 5 other sets, 2 of which were civerbs ward, thanks game!
Got my mf up over 150% at one point, but traded out a nice ammy and circlet to bring it down to about 135% now. Spent most of my chippies at lvl 25 re-rolling staffs to try to get some decent staff mods. Finally got a nice staff with +14 energy, +1 blizz, and +1 Firewall, with 2 sockets (tir,tir).
Have I ever mentioned how much I HATE blizzard! that spell just rubs me the wrong way! Maybe I just don't know how to use it right, but it just never works out well for me. It is however, still the best spell I can get at level 24, so I have to use it. I also really hate Ghoul Lords, they are such a pain as they have decent resists and like to move around. But I managed to clear the tombs eventually and press on to Duriel. I had gotten all worked up about him being really hard so I dropped it down to /p3...that was way to easy! slivered him with static and then just stood there while I blizzed him, took about 15 seconds all in all, and I only used 2 healers and no Juves. Currently sitting at almost level 29.
On to act 3 now!
I love this act! Especially the Jungle!
(OK, I only love it because I will get to lvl 30 in the jungle)
And with a lot of luck I just may get an insight by the end of the act! (stressing the "a lot of luck" part!)
I am in with an assassin, currently working my way through Act 1. As expected, the gameplay has been easy and straightforward so far. I will do an official post later, but I wanted to throw my hat into the ring now.
Umbriel set out from the Pandemodium Fortress, and commenced killing things on her way to Diablo. Her DTail was killing quite well, especially at /p3. She cleared out the Outer Steppes, then found Izual, who was a bit of a pain, and made her drink a bunch of potions. After killing him, she was a sliver away from level 30 (and Venom). She had to wait until she actually got level 30 to use the 2 skill points, one for DTail, one for Venom.
After getting Venom, things started dying noticeably faster. She kept hoping that she could find more amythyst, hoping to be able to cube up to a Pamythyst, the only ingredient she was missing to be able to up a set of rare boots. Perhaps she'd get something at the hellforge, or if she was unlucky there, at least by sometime halfway through act V.... and all of the sudden, there was a gem shrine in front of her. She almost clicked on it out of reflex, with no gems in her inventory. A short time later her rare greaves had been replaced by rare battle boots -- the very aptly named Death Tread.
Death Tread
Battle Boots
Defense: 52
Durability: 18 of 18
Required Level: 30
Required Strength: 95
Fingerprint: 0x2d283669
Item Level: 34
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+20% Enhanced Defense
+6 Maximum Stamina
Fire Resist +27%
5% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
Repairs 1 Durability in 20 Seconds
Required Level +5
Things started dying very fast.
Most of the rest of the act went very quickly, and Hephasto was a pushover. She had an interesting time with Infector's pack, who I normally use the TP to town and walk back from the WP trick on. She could outrun them (level 14 BoS + Stealth armor = fast), but didn't want to get surrounded. Hit and run tactics worked well here, and also on big D himself, who was actually dangerous, but somewhat less than she'd feared.
Seeing how fast the second half of Act IV went, she decided to take on act V at /p5. Things still died fast, but it was no longer dangerously boring. With her overpowered boots, things went pretty smoothly, with a couple of dangerous moments when abominables or death lords tried to stunlock her.
In the throneroom, she had essentially no problems until Lister's pack, which she wasn't quite fast enough to stunlock as a pack. She was able to separate them, though, and at that point it was all over for them, since any single one of them (including Lister) could be pinned to the wall in constant hit recovery. Baal at /p5 was no pushover, but was pretty straightforward.
Next up: cows, and lots of shopping/gambling to try to solve the resistance problem. (-23% cold res. is particularly worrying)
TheLoner is still alive and is slowly zealing his way through act 5. His first shael dropped in the frigid highlands, then his first sol in the Pit of Acheron. In Abadon, he met a stone skin unique pack of frenzy hell lords. He ended up having to back track almost all the way to the entrance to try and take them on at a time, and it was touch and go for a while. After getting to the Arreat Plateau WP, he took a break to contemplate. Upon returning he decided to use the sol to up the shadowfang, use the socket reward on it, and drop the shael in it. It was a good thing he was able to, because the icy caves he was headed to didn't care too much about his holy freeze aura. Frozenstein and his pack caused him alot of grief, stunlocking him before he could even start his zeals. Eventually they went down, and Anya was rescued. He has since emerged from the caves and made it to the Frozen Tundra WP. The trip to Nili's temple was a slow and methodical one. Upon entering the portal, he attempted to redeem as many of the corpses there as possible. A few managed to arise, but they were taken down so that a slow attack on Pindle could be made. Pindle and the gang were taken out with alternations of holy freeze and sanctuary, and the final blow was dealt by the aura from a safe distance to avoid his death explosion. He was kind enough to cough up some very nice rare golves which were put to immediate use.
The gloves:
Code:
Wraith Grasp
Gauntlets
Defense: 19
Durability: 24 of 24
Required Level: 12
Required Strength: 60
Fingerprint: 0x2ea3c3aa
Item Level: 45
Version: Expansion 1.10+
+22% Enhanced Defense
Lightning Resist +15%
Fire Resist +6%
Half Freeze Duration
58% Extra Gold from Monsters
25% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items
The halls were relatively uneventful and Nili himself was rather tame once all his minions has been slain and redeemed. Nili didn't drop anything good, but one of his minions dropped Sander's gloves. The 20ias would only gain him 1 frame per full zeal cycle, so they will be stashed for now. He also gambled a few circlets before they got too expensive and managed to get a +1 pala/2MDR that will hold him over until he finds another sol for 'Lore'. Only other decent finds were a white military axe which might be suitable for an imbue if needed, and a 3os great sword, suitable for 'King's Grace' if needed. Next stop, the ancients and hopefully the WSK. Everything so far has been p7 or p8, except act bosses at p5. Everything fully cleared and all WP's and quests done.
Vanessa has made it to act 2, but not without some difficulty. It is bloody difficult to find a bow early on that has enough damage to comfortably handle p8 without a merc. Currently sporting a Short Battle Bow with the massive damage numbers of 6-17. I've been gambling bows like crazy, and this is the best that's popped up. Andariel was plain scary, and nearly got me. As did a couple of "door traps" (i.e. open door, confronted by boss pack, no room to retreat). So far the nastiest monsters to deal with have been, surprisingly, Sand Leapers. They are so freaking hard to hit with a ranged weapon, the way they jump around. And there was a nice welcoming committee of the damned things when I entered Rocky Waste (again, no room to retreat). What I really need is a source of knockback. Cleglaw's Pincers would be the absolute dream item to have drop right now. I've managed to find 2 Uniques thus far: Crushflange, and eth Gorefoot.
Thalestris the Amazon queen began her journey tonight, traveling as far as the Dark Wood WP and freeing Deckard Cain. That took a couple of hours, so she decided to rest for the remainder of the evening. She isn't really much of a javelin thrower or a bow wielder yet, as she found a nice +cold damage scepter, and it works well on the undead roaming around the wilderness.
Her best find so far is The Gnasher, which has 20% CB but requires Thalestris to stand adjacent to her enemies to engage them. Not a problem now, but when that CB becomes necessary, well that may become an issue!
[highlight]Thalestris, the scepter maiden, level 14, Dark Wood[/highlight]
Manage to reach Dry Hills WP before pain kicked in again. Nothing special dropped. Few sticky situations, but nothing cold arrow didn't solve. Hoping for Artic bow if anything so I can use Artic Fur Quilted Armor. Continue when possible.
Nothing too exciting to report. TheStreak has cleared out Cold Plains and The Cave last night. Primary weapon is a cracked scepter with +1Holy Fire, and he is decimating p8 with it. Really amazed at the strength of Holy Fire in the early game. He's killing most things in 2 or so swings. Got a Felloak Club in the Cave, which is odd since my GoldDiggers Barb also found that unique in Act 1. Nothing difficult as of yet, but I can see major issues with ranged attackers and a lack of CBF. I put a Rhyme shield on just about every character I play, so I'm not sure where else I will be able to pick up CBF.
Continuing at p5, 35k gold was gambled getting rare boots and belt and Uta finally spent points miserly in strength and replaced his quilted 20LR armour with a 3os topazed one. A few minutes later Uta reached level 18 on Pitspawn Fouldogs pack and placed a point in bonespear to go with 5 with bonewall. Pitspawn dropped a 2os quilted rare with 18 LR. :grrr:
Mana problems were helped (unheard of by me) by placing hard points in energy (no spirit shield to look forward too!) and a full clear was made with a nice 5 resists all GC being found on cat4.
In the second session Act 2 was done in odd fashion by occasionally rushing round casting dim vision, finding the waypoint, then doing the clear with nearly all points spent in bone spear. A bare 3BS white wand was shopped in short order (less than 15 visits) and a wand with decrepify was finally cubed using up the unwanted chips (diamonds, skulls, emeralds, rubies). The single point in CE came in handy luring lone stone skin bosses and champion packs over the corpses of the others. The all important run speed was helped by gorefoots dropping in the lost city the other unique found being a nagel 16.
A 2 os breastplate was seen, bought and stashed, a tal dropping in the Sanctuary which along with 2 nefs and 3 tirs already in the stash completed the stealth armour in time to face Duriel who failed to make contact when decrepified at an easy p1.
The remaining tombs were kept for later and act 3 reached at level 26 where fast progress was made. Heavy reliance on DV now to break up flayer rushes with the single point in bone prison being occasionally useful. A 140 point bone armour took the sting out when they occasionally contacted. Clearing all but the swampy pit at p5 Stormtree was sold a dummy and the lower Kurast waypoint taken without a shot being fired. On the way the gidbinn reward was a handy fcr ring with 23 CR and minor stats, a 25 mf amulet dropped too and the old topazed helm was replaced with a rare 2os one with energy and mana for a running total of 95mf
Backtracking, the swampy pit and tombs were then cleared, a Nokusan being found in the latter along with a several resist small charms to complete a rather long session with ~650k gold and a perfect topaz courtesy of two shrines being stashed. Hsarus shield and Isenharts sword were the only set items to drop so far.
. Hate to hear that you didn't enjoy playing your barb. So early into his journey as well!
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